How does it work—besides brilliantly? Well, after you download the gender-specific app, you pay the company money to send you messages and crowdsourced selfies. Then, you pretend these messages are from a real human and excuse yourself from real social interactions so that you can respond to your robotic lover. "Our inaugural service is $24.99 and includes 100 texts, 10 voicemails, and 1 handwritten note," co-founder Kyle Tabor told Betabeat. "We're looking to create both less and more expensive packages as we learn what our users need."

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The St. Louis-based company started as a joke, after Tabor's co-founder Matthew Homann bought the invisiblegirlfriend and invisibleboyfriend domains nine years ago. Then, in 2009, the two entered the idea for corresponding apps in a local startup contest and won the damn thing. Now, the enterprising young businessmen say they've developed a "secret sauce" that makes all of the exchanges sound like real human interaction. The handwritten letter, we're guessing, does involve a real human.